Richard Fahey: Friday and Saturday runners at Newcastle, Royal Ascot reflections

Saturday Runners

ZIP – 2.40 Newcastle

Zip loves the course and he’s been in great order for a couple of years now, running right up to his best. At Newcastle you need a bit of luck but he has won there a couple of times so fingers crossed he can get his head in front again.

ADEB – 2.40 Newcastle

He doesn’t mind the track, he’s another course and distance winner and I like horses for courses. He won on his last visit there in February and he’s in good order, so I’m struggling to split my pair.

RI NA FARRAIGE – 4.25 Newcastle

He’s won a bumper and he’s won around here. He’s in great order, I’ve just had to keep him off the very fast ground which we’ve had an awful lot of. He’s in the sales, so fingers crossed he runs a decent race before then as he is capable of winning races.

OUTRUN THE STORM – 8.00 Doncaster

Beverley didn’t suit him at all the last meeting there, he loves to dominate a straight track and I just took a chance at Beverley. He’s run there twice now and run terrible both times, but he’s very fit and very well and I think this track will suit him much better than his last run.

Time to look at Ascot field sizes?

I do wonder if the time has to come to cut the field size limit for the two-year-old races at Royal Ascot.

It's no-one's fault but there were 26 runners in the Queen Mary as you'd expect with so many inexperienced fillies in there, it took a while to load despite everyone's best efforts.

Those who went in first were positioned in the stalls for up to four minutes - my runner Midnight Affair was among them - and I don't think she got a real shot at the race as a result.

Can you expect an inexperienced horse to jump and run its race when they’ve been in there for so long? She didn't, missing the beat when the gates opened and was playing catch-up afterwards. She was never getting into it. Again there’ll be better days for her but I'm sure those who loaded late were at a big advantage. It stands to reason.

Elsewhere Emperor's Son probably had a tougher race than we thought on debut at Carlisle and might have bounced in the Coventry Stakes as a result. He too didn’t jump great and was never really travelling as we expected him to. I know he’s much better than that and he’ll bounce back.

Bombay Bazaar failed to fire in the Windsor Castle but he probably had a hard enough race at Beverley the time before. He didn’t travel or finish his race as we expected him to and he’s had a busy time of it so will be given a little break.

I was absolutely delighted with the run of Malc. It looks like he wants six furlongs but you often need a horse like that for the Norfolk. They went a good, solid pace and he stuck his head down and had a right go to finish second. He’ll progress again.

I initially thought Midnight Mile had a good draw in one for the Ribblesdale but the stats people told me it wasn’t and so it proved.

We got sucked into going forward with her to prevent being trapped too far back and in the end she’s run too free and not got home. Had we not been on the inside we wouldn’t have ridden her like that and our plan backfired. We’ll drop her in trip next time.

I was always a little worried about whether Ramazan would get the mile in the Britannia and in the end he didn’t. He looked a danger to all two furlongs out and will drop back to seven, maybe even six furlongs, now. He’s a good, hardy horse who will definitely win a big one somewhere.

I’d have loved Pretty Crystal to be drawn just a little lower in the Albany. She ran a big race stands’ side but the key action was always just happening a little away from her. It was a good, solid run though, she’s progressive and has come out of Ascot really well.

We also ran Flaccianello in there. We went forward with her and she probably just got found out by the forceful tactics, walking home in the final 100 yards. We’ll get her back on track.

Golden Mind is a horse who is going the right way. He travelled a lot better in the Chesham Stakes but is a colt who just takes ten strides to pick up and engage top gear. He didn't get the clearest of runs but came home really well to finish third behind Snellen.

He's a very laidback character, remarkably so. His half-brother Perfect Power was similar but this guy is even more horizontal as I'm sure anyone who say pictures of him asleep in the box at Ascot on Saturday would realise! He'll keep on improving.

Similar comments apply to Matnookh who finished well, staying on for sixth in his group. This was just his second start and he's another I expect to progress with racing.

Finally Have Secret had a real go at ending our week on a high, eventually finishing fourth in the Golden Gates Stakes. He's a good handicapper already and is going to get stronger as the year goes on. He's a horse for next year, the year after and the year after that. I really like him. He should stay further, his dam won over a mile-and-a-half and I thought we'd be racing at that trip with him by now.

However he's running so well in these valuable ten furlong handicaps we'll keep having a pop at them for a little while yet.

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